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Potato Soup

A creamy potato soup made with milk, butter, onions, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Potato Soup

Why it works: Celery and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,810 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Potato Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the base

  1. Cook potatoes in boiling salted water until soft, then rub through a strainer.

  2. Scald the milk with the onion, then remove the onion.

  3. Slowly add the milk to the potatoes.

Finish the soup

  1. Melt half the butter in a pot, then add the dry ingredients and stir until well mixed.

  2. Stir the mixture into the boiling soup and cook for one minute.

  3. Strain the soup, add the remaining butter, and sprinkle with parsley.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Celery + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Potato + parsleytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,855 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Potatoes
Form the body of the soup, giving it a thick, smooth texture when rubbed through a strainer.
Milk
Provides the liquid base and creaminess that makes the soup smooth and rich.
Butter
Adds richness and flavor, and is melted to cook with the flour.
Flour
Thickens the soup as it cooks with the melted butter and milk.

The step that matters

Stir the mixture into the boiling soup and cook for one minute. Flour clumps if added without being fully mixed into the butter first, and the soup must boil briefly so the starch swells and thickens the liquid evenly.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (potato, milk, celery, pepper, butter, flour, parsley):

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Chivefits better
  3. Parsnipfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, milk, celery, pepper, butter, flour, parsley. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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